Bad Apple Theory

The government has the responsibility of upholding and protecting the rights and welfare of the people. In relation with this, the government established subsidiary bodies and organizations that will help them do their duty of protecting the people. The Police force is among the primary organization that is authorized by the government to maintain the peace and order of their jurisdiction and to properly enforce the law to anyone that will pose a threat to the security of his or her fellow individual or to the general public.

However, the reputation of the police force is tainted by corruption due to the illegal practices of some police officers. This kind of problem must be immediately address but there are difficulties in properly controlling corruption because most people still believe with the Bad Apple Theory. The Bad Apple Theory tries to explain the illegal and unethical behavior of some police officers.

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This theory emphasize that the corrupt practices in the Police Force is due to some “bad apples” that are found in a clean barrel. Simply put, this means that corruption is brought about by some bad police officers that are working in a clean and ethical police force. This mentality hinders the proper understanding and control of corruption. Due to the fact, that this Bad Apple Theory is no longer applicable.

According to the works of Tim Newburn (1999) entitled: Understanding and preventing police corruption: lessons from the literature, corrupt police officers are not natural-born criminals, nor are they bad men or women who are constitutionally different from their honest co-workers. In order to control corruption, it is essential that the barrel should also be examined and not only the apples. In this sense, the whole organization of the police force should be carefully analyzed to see its flaws that might influence police officers to be corrupt (Newburn, 1999).

To be able properly prevent and control corruption in the police force, people should forego of the Bad Apple Theory. Authorities and even ordinary citizen should not only be vigilant with corrupt officers but they should also give due attention to the police fore itself. It must be remembered that “corrupt police are made, not born” (Newburn, 1999). Reference Newburn, T. (1999). Understanding and Preventing Police Corruption: Lessons from the Literature. London: Crown Copyright.

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